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History 2700 History of the United States to 1877
K.L. MacKay kmackay@weber.edu ext. 6782
    A chronological survey of American history from European intrusion onto native lands through the post-Civil War Reconstruction era.

This course is designed to give a general overview of U.S. history to 1877. Emphasis will be on the meaning of events:

• why things happened as they did,
• how people viewed the changing times in which they lived,
• the consequences of their words and actions, and
• continuity and change over time.

This course will be reading and writing intensive. Readings include original source materials, scholarly essays, and scholarly internet sites. Writings will include discussion forums, short response papers, short essay quizzes, and critical analyzes.

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Any student requiring accommodations or services due to a disability must contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) in room 181 of the Student Service Center. SSD can also arrange to provide course materials (including this syllabus) in alternative formats if necessary.

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Syllabus:
Learning Goals | Texts | Activities in Support of Learning | Grades | Internet Resources

Learning Goals:

• Students will learn history, acquire knowledge of basic facts, events--especially of significant questions and major themes in American history, 1490s-1877.
• Students will hone their skills in reading, thinking, writing. Students will learn how to learn, how to reflect on their own learning style.
• Students will gain a historical perspective by which to understand the present. Students will gain an understanding of how historians think and interpret the past through the lens of the present.
• Students will consider a wide variety of historical sources and learn about how historians go about "recovering the past."

       The value of History is, indeed, not scientific but moral:  by
       liberalizing the mind, by deepening the sympathies, by fortifying the
       will, it enables us to control, not society, but ourselves. . .it
       prepares us to live more humanely in the present and to meet the
       future.
                 --Carl L. Becker

Texts:

• Zinn, A People's History of the U.S.
• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs
• Shaara, Killer Angels
• other texts as assigned

Recommended text: Kenneth C. Davis, Don't Know Much About History

You might find helpful:

• The Outline of American History (1994)  which has useful summaries and short biographies.
• The learning modules posted from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
• American Memory Timeline
• Free University Online (CLEP Exam preparation) has modules in U.S. History.

Activities in support of learning goals:

• Discussion Forums. For each unit of study, there are discussion forums. You are usually required to make three posts per forum. Two of these should be substantive responses to our readings (topics are posted, including work with primary documents), and one should be a response to the post of a classmate. 
  1. on the topic posted
  2. on your work with sources
  3. and a response to the post of a classmate.

  Posts should total a minimum of  600 words per week. Your grade for the discussion forums will be based on the timeliness of your responses, their length, their quality and substance, your use of assigned readings. (20 points each forum) A record of the number of postings you have viewed is available to me.

• 3 quizzes. These will be randomized from a list of posted topics. (25 points each) These quizzes must be taken on Chi Tester at WSU testing center or under proctored conditions.
• Projects. There will be a variety of projects. Choose 10. Projects should be completed by  the Monday after the unit in which they are described. Points will be taken off late projects. (10 points each)
  • You must do Project #6
• 3 Analyzes of Scholarship. You will critique 3 pieces of scholarship in formal papers (2-3 pages), typed, free of gross spelling and grammatical errors. You may analyze the scholarship of 3 different topics in U.S. history to 1877, or you may analyze a single topic through 3 different scholars. An analysis paper is due at the end of each of the 6 week intervals of the semester.(15 points each.)

Questions are always welcome, either via e-mail (kmackay@weber.edu)or in meetings with me. (When contacting me through email, begin the subject line with History 2700 so that I will notice your message right away.)

Grades:

Grades will be a percentage of points possible-not "on the curve."